Gogol, the main character of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, has a crisis of identity that is caused by his mother, Ashima and her rejection of American culture, which Gogol quickly adopts, causing him to never develop his own identity and leaving him without a personality and alone. Gogol’s foil is Ashima, as she is a part of his entire life, from the moment he’s born to the end of the book. At first, she rejects American culture, causing Gogol to obviously be drawn towards it, and the fact that Gogol is born into American culture, to begin with, makes him grow up as an American. Not to mention that Ashima, unlike Gogol, has a definitive personality. She is quiet and reserved usually, though in family settings she is way more outgoing and talkative, …show more content…
Arguably, New York is the center of American culture; cramped spaces, lots of pollution and strangers all around. His parents fear it, as it is foreign to them, unlike their Bengali culture. Gogol, in contrast, fears the Bengali way. During a rice ceremony for Gogol, the relatives present three objects to him. The three objects symbolize three different professions Gogol might one day have. Usually, “children will grab at one of them, sometimes all of them, but Gogol touches nothing. He shows no interest in the plate, instead of turning away, briefly burying his face in his honorary uncle’s shoulder” (Lahiri 40). Gogol, even at a young age, rejects the Bengali culture. Though a baby, him refusing to choose shows that he does not want any of those professions, and does not want a Bengali ceremony to determine it to begin with. Gogol’s confusion with Ashima’s insistence on the Bengali way only grows as he ages. One day, Gogol comes home from school with a tracing of a grave. Ashima is appalled, commenting that “only in America (a phrase she has begun to resort to often these days), only in America are children taken to cemeteries in the name of